So, the topic hasn't been fully addressed with everyone present, so I thought I'd take the initiative and get a discussion going.
It's pretty obvious that WoW isn't the go-to diversion anymore on the previously designated nights, not only due to ToC inactivity, but also because it would appear the casual raiding scene we were a part of has dissolved for the most part. We've all seen the available 5-man content, and PvP hadn't really come up as something we wanted to pursue seriously. Other than one more upcoming large content patch, we've sampled most of what the current expansion has to offer.
Recently, we've been giving some other games some attention, which is good. A nice change of pace. Some Warcraft 3 custom games, some L4D, a little TF2, etc.
The main goal of this post however is to get us talking about our gaming nights, maybe to organize them in some way. Three questions come to mind on the subjects that have come up so far that I want your input on...
1. What are your feelings about WoW? Are you bored of the game, or does it still entertain? If you're not playing now, would you ever go back, and when?
(My answer: WoW is ok, but it has been like 3 years or something, and it's getting overly familiar, routine, and less entertaining. Considerations of account suspension do come to mind. It would take a fair amount of new content in the game to bring me back, or at least, a mass return of ToC.)
2. Given that Wed. and Sun. were the nights we would log on to WoW (raiding nights aside), are these still good designated nights for online gaming for us? If not, which night(s) can work better for you? (Me: I'm flexible, most nights would be fine to designate, but i'm cool with Wed. and Sun., Fri. night would be bad for me though because I'm more tired then than any other night.)
3. Including the games we've been playing online instead of WoW, what games would you like to suggest for designated gaming nights? These can be future releases, presently available titles, and enjoyments of the past (don't be afraid to stroll memory lane, lots of great games from years ago that would be cheap to obtain for those that don't have them).
From my mind, a brief list:
Warcraft 3 (custom games mostly, I was never an RTSer)
Left 4 Dead (good fun and cheaper than it used to be, better now with custom campaigns!)
Team Fortress 2 (better with more people)
Diablo 2 (have we ever all played a run-through together at once? No? I'm certain we all own this one so why not?)
Counter-Strike (it's been a while, we could go for it once/twice)
Deathmatch mode of a good shooter (good for any number of people)
Battlefield: Heroes (it's free to play and pretty fun, so you've got no excuse not to try it)
So please don't just read this post and move on, go ahead and reply with some input on what we can play online in the future. I don't get to see you guys any other way, and I don't see a trip to california anytime soon, so I want to make the most of what we can do online.
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I'll be on EST starting in January, so I might be able to join you guys more.
Yes, I'm tired of WoW. I *might* check out the next expansion pack. Then again, I might not. I let my account expire back in September.
L4D, L4D2, and Borderlands are my current or soon-to-be released pics. Some of us have already taken advantage of the pre-order, so if you're on the fence and wondering whether you'll have anyone to play with on either of these titles, YES pull the trigger.
Longer term SC2 and then D3 are also sure-to-be-platinum titles.
I canceled renewal of my 6 months subscription, low and behold 4 days later i no longer have an active wow account. I logged on and said good buy or cya later or something. I may come back. Just, not interested in resubscribing now.
Wed is a nice night, no we can't play long but it gives me something to look forward to during the middle of the week.
Sundays are cool too.
Other games, Diablo 3 looks cool, Starcraft 2? Maybe. Again, what tat said, Borderlands and left for dead 2 on preorder... The problem with these... they are 4 player games. I was speaking to Taylor about finding someone to GM. Maybe we could do some dice and paper fun too.
No clue where my D2 cd/key is.
I also would like a PC soon so i can enjoy these new games. Brooke and I have been trying to get more things done around the house so a little less gaming for us. even if it is one night less. Anywho Thats where we are at.
Win7 is causing a massive influx of new machine announcements, so if you're not in the mood to self-build you'll still have a lot to choose from.
Blizz pretty much already has my money for Diablo 3, so that's a definite thing to do...late next year. I'm waiting on reviews for Borderlands but as long as it's good, that'll be something I'm on board for.
Blizz lost my money on SC2 until they offer each of those 3 games(!) much cheaper. Valve lost my money on L4D2 when they decided that Half-Life 2 wasn't important/profitable enough, but a future sale wouldn't be out of the question.
Ahh discussion, this is good as we had a good thing going and I don't want it to end completely.
Ok #1, I still am enjoying wow, yeah it's getting old but it makes for a good hang out environment, I was planning on quitting it for good once we killed Arthas, but with my home purchase expenses are tight and I can't justify any leisure purchases. The time commitment of the house is starting to slow down now, but instead of living really tight for years what I really need to do is get a new job for the side, or even a new main job and demote my current to a side job, then I could do any game I want. So to keep myself from being distracted from that new job goal, I think it's best I stay away from wow until then, but once I have one I'd love to get in again.
#2 Sunday nights are still good, Wednesdays are still OK although right now I can't spare the whole night, maybe starting at 7 or something. Changing the day works too, before I left wow I noticed Todd and Brooke were not on much if that no longer works for them.
#3 I'd still love to do pen and paper RPG's over skype, I think that could be fun. We could break the ice with a fun one where we all get to change one thing about each other's characters to make them interesting or something.
Other than that, as I said earlier subscription games are right out for me, I'm pretty much limited to what I have now as any game over $10 is a lot for me ATM. What I have is:
Half life 2, Team Fortress 2
Unreal Tournament 2004
Warcraft III, TFT expansion
Just curious about the EST thing, Gavin. You still in nihon?
Yes, but Fumiko was accepted to vet school so we'll be moving for that. The campus is on St. Kitts in the Caribbean which is EST.
http://www.rossu.edu/veterinary-school/
In the carribian? Wowsa! You better brush up on your swashbuckling skills before you dare venture there, .....ya land lubber, ye!
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No plans to return to WoW here. I think I'm done with MMOs for a while.
I'm on and gaming almost 6 nights a week. Sundays are right out.
Borderlands and L4D2 should be my primary games through February I think, barring some major lifestyle change.
I also have TF2, Warcraft 3, UT2k4, Supreme Commander, and many others. Diablo 3 and Dead Rising 2 are on my horizon.
I'm always up for FPS deathmatch and other competitive style play, though I think the skill range is too wide in this group for optimum fun. We can always hit up Quake Live or something if you're up for it.
Cool thing about L4D - if we can get 6-8 people online, we can play all-friends versus. If we end up with >4 Borderlands players, we can mix and match game sessions.
I actually did some GMing in DnD, Mechwarrior, and Shadowrun in middle and high school. It's fun, but the mainstream ones take a lot of time and money to get into.
BTW - I got a random message from Andrew Cho a couple days ago. He's in LA studying storyboarding. He says he's interested in joining us when L4D2 releases.
I wouldn't mind picking up a copy of UT2k4 if we're wanting a standard MP FPS, might find it at a Half-Price Books for cheaper (love that they carry old and used PC games).
Which pen and paper would we be playing? I have an old Rifts book and a bunch of White Wolf Vampire stuff.
Been getting a little more educated on Borderlands, which has piqued my interest, I'm enthusiastic to read some reviews on it (which should start popping up any day now). If Gearbox did a good job, I'll be all over that $#!^. I'm cautiously not-preordering because I jumped on the Hellgate:London bandwagon too early and got burned on that one.
Some guy managed to get a copy of Borderlands early and streamed his playthrough live online. I checked it out for about 20 minutes yesterday (guy was amazed to have over 1000 simultaneous viewers). At this point I'm confident I will enjoy it.
Combat: Similar to Halo - lots of running and gunning, some hiding behind cover but not to excess. 2 weapon slots at start, expanding to 4 later in the game. You can run out of ammo for one or two guns, or limp around for a while with low health. Some items and skills can help you regenerate either.
Vehicles: Similar to Halo or Battlefield. Spawn a vehicle at a spawn station, drive around, dismount whenever and wherever.
Loot system: looks a lot like Diablo, both in how drops are handled and in items. Vending machines for stores. They even have a "sale" item that rotates every 20 minutes.
RPG elements: 3 skill trees like WoW or Diablo. Can only max 2 trees. One special triggered ability gained as soon as the skills open up, everything else looks passive.
One preview I saw had the player at level 38 for his second play through. Looks like you can start over at your current level with all your items, with the game scaling up to match like Diablo hard mode, or Mass Effect.
Quests: Look like WoW. Go here, kill X mobs, gather Y items, flip this switch, etc.
Co-op: Handled kind of like Diablo. Extra mobs spawn as more players join. Join and leave at will, so if we ended up with 5 players online we could split to 3 and 2 no problem. Borderlands uses Gamespy for matchmaking, but they are supposedly trying to make it more user friendly like Steam. We will use Steam anyway to see who is online.
What else? Two words: teleporting grenades.
sounds pretty cool.
For pen and paper I'd start off with no real rules, but once I pull any out it would be easy to use rifts rules because they fit any scenario. Due to Taylor's injury I think anything other than turn based or audio role playing would be very difficult.
Taylor's D&D injury?
Ok Taylor Todd and I are all sold on doing some role playing over skype with some programs assisting. How about the rest of you? Nothing too serious to start, we'll see how it works next Wednesday maybe?
Sorry to hear you guys go. I was wondering where you guys went.
WoW is still a lot of fun for me. I'll leave the light on just in case.
My gaming time is very sporadic. Until Ethan starts preschool it'll be that way. Or worse, if number two comes along.
I'd love to join you guys on whatever. The limiting factor, other than time, is my 5yr old dell. I wanted a new one before the end of summer but looks like it won't be till March next year.
March isn't a bad time. Windows 7 will be well settled, and so will the core i5 platform (highly recommended).
So hopefully tonight we will try our first round of skype roleplaying. Hopefully we can all be on at 7. For those of you who are interested but have no idea what it is or how it is done, the game we use requires no knowledge and we pretty much ignore the rules so all you need is an image in your head of you you are, and it can be ANYTHING snow shoveler to cyborg cowboy.
I'm interested, but I'm not sure my schedule works w/ you fellas. If I'm on I'm in, but don't wait for me.
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